However, since last few years Azamgarh
is making headlines for negative reasons. People have started seeing
the city of noted poets with suspicion. The reason being arrest of
some alleged terrorists who belong to Azamgarh.

In
Focus

The names like underworld don Dawood
Ibrahim, Haji Mastan, Abu Salem have only brought dishonour to
Azamgarh. Dawood is a most wanted terrorist now for his role in 1993
Mumbai blasts. Like Dawood, some other terror symbols belonging to
this city of poets are Ahmedabad blast master mind Abu Bashir,
Asadullah Akhtar alias Tabrez, a 29-year-old youth accused of 2013
Hyderabad serial blasts.

There could be some more names in this
list of terrorists having their roots in Azamgarh. But does this mean
that a city once known because of its poets and for its Hindu-Muslim
brotherhood, be termed as a terror hub?

It was only last Sunday when Amit Shah,
BJP's General Secretary and a close associate of the party's
PM-in-waiting Narendra Modi, called Azamgarh a 'base of terrorists'.

Terming Azamgarh as a terror hub is
result of bad politics or there is some factually justified truth
behind this nomenclature?

We spoke to few intellectuals from
Azamgarh from different walks of life, to know how they feel when
people call their city a terror hub. All echoed in one voice that
terming Azamgarh as base of terrorists is a result of bad politics
being played. They strongly opposed referring their city as terror
hub just because few people have alleged terror links.

Radhe Mohan, a social activist from
Azamgarh says that calling Azamagarh as a terror hub is majorly
because of politics. “I also accept the fact that few Muslim boys
have joined some terrorist groups, but this does not make the total
population of Azamgarh to be terrorist. Azamgarh is not a motherland
of terrorists.”

Sant Prasad Agarwal, President,
Association of Businessmen in Azamgarh, feels that, “It is all
because of bad politics, and factually there are no traces of
terrorism in Azamgarh. Some parties are accusing the city just for
their political interest.”

Radhe Shyam Yadav, a teacher at a junior high school says that the people outside Azamgarh feels that
the district is infected with terrorism, but its just their
assumption. “There are no cases of terrorism in Azamgarh, though
some people from Azamgarh have joined few terrorist groups, but its
just a small number. The politicians are doing so, just to bring a
bad name to the city,” said Yadav.

Manoj Singh, an advocate from Azamgarh
says that, people in Azamgarh are very nice, and the city is a good
example of communal harmony. “The politicians are making the city
unpopular, just to gain profit out of it during this election
season,” said Manoj Singh.

Political analysts also feel that
terming Azamgarh as a terror hub is a bad politics being played.
“The comment by Amit Shah, is an example of bad politics. Their are
lakhs of people in the city and only few people (2-3) are associated
with terrorist groups, so you can't brand the whole city as a
terrorist hub,” said Dr. Sudhir Panwar, a political science
professor from Lucknow University.